SHIITAKE LORE:

Shiitakes are a decomposing fungus native to China and other parts of
Asia. The Japanese syllable
Shii refers to the type of host tree, probably in the same family as birch in
America.
Take means the fruit of the mushroom.
Shiitakes are more like animals than plants. They have behaviors and we
believe they're social. They like Doug, they dislike crabby people and
negative emotional environments (as plants can wilt when their owners
argue). They're not fond of cigarette smoke and may balk in their
fruiting around smokers. Some growers swear their shiitakes like
classical music and rock and roll. Shiitake logs fruit more generously
when they are with another log or in a group of logs because they emit pheromones that stimulate fruiting. They love the
negative ions from rain and they respond to thunder and lightning. Some
growers use flashing lights, play thunderstorm music to simulate storms
and tap their logs with hammers or drop them a foot or more to simulate
a branch falling off the tree during a thunderstorm. Like plants, mushrooms have communication systems with one another, with plants and animals, and with some people who are sensitive to communication and signals in Nature.

We toured the eastern US visiting shiitake farms and learned that there is
no Right Way to grow shiitakes. Each grower had a different system and
all of them got mushrooms: On 2,000 logs or 100,000 logs, using
compressor-cooled soaking tanks and fork lifts or lawn sprinklers and overhead sprayers, even using garden hoses with punched-in holes. We saw
home-made greenhouses, converted hog farms and chicken houses, elaborate
indoor operations and thousands of logs cultivated bare naked outdoors,
shaded by trees.

DO SHIITAKES GROW WILD? Not in the US, although they will spread from
our outdoor logs into firewood, but yielding only a 'shroom or two.
They're native to Asia.

In a natural forest, shiitake spores are released from fruiting
mushrooms in spring or autumn. They float through the air, traveling
long distances and settle in a silvery dust on live tree branches and on
fallen limbs. The immune system of a live tree will overcome the
shiitake spores; but on a dead branch, the spores take hold and work their way
into the cambium layer. They colonize that section of wood, devouring
cellulose and building a mycelial network. The next year, a storm comes, breaks off the branch and it crashes to the
ground, startling the shiitake awake. With rain and temperatures in the
70s F./50s C. during the day and in the 50s F./40s C. at night, five or six shiitakes may
"bloom" on the fallen branch. In the years that it takes for the shiitake to consume the log, the yields increase with each "fruiting," peak, and then decrease until the log is completely consumed.

HISTORY OF SHIITAKE CULTIVATION. In the 1930s the Japanese developed a
cultivation method using saw cuts, and eventually developed the methods
we use now, drilling holes in cut wood, injecting shiitake spawn,
and sealing the holes. They incubate the logs until they are colonized, a 6-10 month process, then they harvest during
the spring and fall rainy seasons.

Shiitake cultivation was kept out of the US because the edible and
medicinal
Lentinula edodes was confused with another strain of
Lentinula, a fungus that attacks railroad ties. Finally in the 1970s,
it was all straightened out, and Americans started cultivating shiitakes
and growing them bigger, faster, and better.

A new, faster, easier method of production involved inoculating
sterilized sawdust blocks. It's popular with commercial growers because
they can grow many times the amount of shiitakes in the same time it
takes to grow shiitakes on logs, and they profit tenfold and more.
Asian growers jumped in with both feet. But the mushrooms aren't as
meaty or tasty. And, as it turned out, sawdust-grown shiitakes are not as supportive to optimal health and well-being.
Research shows that log-grown shiitakes contain 3-5 times more medicinal compounds such as beta-glucans and polysaccharides than sawdust-grown shiitakes. Most Americans, and many chefs, don't
know the difference until they see, handle, and taste shiitakes grown on
logs.

Early Folklore

For centuries the Chinese picked shiitakes wild and dried them. The
Japanese learned to cultivate them. They placed fresh mushrooms on a
dead log and let them self-inoculate. We heard the story that in olden
days in Japan there were shiitake wars to plunder and steal inoculated
logs. We heard that it used to be the custom that when a boy child was born
to inoculate a 20-foot long log, about 4 feet in diameter. It took
around 20 years for that log to colonize. So when the boy turned 21, and
ready to seek his fortune in the world, his fortune awaited him in his
back yard. This may be folklore, as we've found no historical proof.

Shiitake ~ the Mushroom of Love

While the healing power of shiitakes is well documented and ongoing,
especially for applications in cancer treatment, the aphrodisiac power
of shiitakes is a matter of ages-old legend. "Donko" shiitake are
believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac.

A "donko" shiitake has white
streak marks on the cap where the skin has dried, but the body of the
mushroom has continued to expand, splitting the skin. The splits and
streaks create beautiful designs on the caps. Where even sawdust-grown
shiitakes may sell for $20 a pound or more in the US and log-grown
shiitakes sell for $40 a pound and up in Asia, "donkos" may sell for $40
a pound in the US and $80-$100 or more in the Orient.